While not directly video games-related, tabletop roleplaying games are gaming adjacent enough that you’ve likely been exposed to them somewhat. And if you have, then chances are you’re aware of the whole mess that is the Dungeons and Dragons Open Gaming License, which will be abbreviated as DnD OGL from now on. While the entire debacle has concluded somewhat, it remains another cautionary tale in the gaming industry, be it of the digital or physical kind.
That being said, it’s an all-too-familiar story, and it certainly won’t be the last of its kind just as it’s far from the first. With that in mind, it’s probably less of a lesson and more of a revision.
What Happened?
But going back to DnD, it really doesn’t help that December was also a month with a lot of uncertainty regarding the OGL in the first place. Add that to what the CEO of WotC said during the investor seminar and the ill-conceived OGL revision was the only logical conclusion.
What can we learn from all this?
Or relearn, since as mentioned, these are all familiar stories that we’ve all seen before. But all the same, for those who haven’t spent much time at the video games industry, there are a few main lessons that we can learn from all this. In fact, there are three, or two depending on the way you want to look at it
Voting with your wallet works
If there’s one thing that Hasbro and WotC has shown us throughout this whole DnD OGL drama, it’s that voting with your wallet works. When a company you like is doing something self-destructive in the name of more money, depriving them of money that they take for granted is about the best way to make sure they listen to feedback. And it’s a lesson that’s especially worth relearning since we all know gamers are very bad at this.
Voting with your wallet is the only thing that works
Related to the point above, but this is especially poignant this time around with the revelation by the WotC insider. It couldn’t be made more clear that backlash is not a form of feedback that the bean counters get, and in the same vein, the only language that many decision makers understand is the bottom line. At least for this one company, it would seem like the goal of making a product worth buying and getting paid for making it has been warped to making money being the main goal, with the method being no object as long as it doesn’t lead to losing money.
In a way, this may be a very cynical way of looking at things, but it’s difficult to come to any other conclusion following this whole episode. But as most of us are aware by now, we’ve seen similar things in the video games industry. With the proliferation of microtransations, season passes and other forms of cutting up a complete game and selling them back as “extra content”, these things keep coming back because people keep buying them.
Brand loyalty is detrimental to everyone
DnD had an OGL that stood the test of time, allowing the tabletop industry to bloom in ways it likely wouldn’t otherwise. But the company decided in its need for money that compromising such a good product was a good idea. Similarly, we’ve seen in the video games industry with every generation of the console wars – the company with the better performing console sales-wise overreaches in the next generation, only to be the better one again after eating humble pie.
Of course, as mentioned, none of these lessons are new, be it for the video games industry, the tabletop industry, or any other for that matter. And just as sure as the sun will rise from the east, another company will remind us of these lessons somewhere down the line.
And on that bombshell…
